In my ongoing quest for finding new and shiny things, I came across the Sennheiser TeamConnect Wireless product range.

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Overview

Sennheiser’s TeamConnect Wireless is a portable conference system providing audio by means of either USB, Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack or NFC (Near Field Communication technology). This variety of connectivity options allows BYOC (bring your own conference [just made that up]). Be it a laptop, smart device or Surface Hub, connecting is simple. This sleek design and flexibility makes for a classy solution. With up to four satellites you got the room covered.

Want a more permanent setup? The tray set is the answer. With the 2 or 4 satellite solution quietly resting in the tray, charging away, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was part of the décor, some piece of art innocently placed to balance the room.

There are 3 different options: –

TeamConnect Wireless (case set): Sennheiser TeamConnect Wireless – this option is portable and comes in a neat, hard shell carry case that also doubles as a charging station.

TeamConnect Wireless – Tray Set: It features one master unit and three slave satellites plus the stationary tray charger. The Tray Set is designed for smaller rooms of up to 24 participants.

TeamConnect – Tray-M (M for midsized): The Tray-M Set is a smaller version of the Tray Set. It features one master unit and one satellite plus the stationary tray charger. The Tray-M Set is designed for smaller rooms of up to 12 participants.

Suggestions for improvement

Would be great to have a disconnect\end call button on the units. Seems like an oversight as there is no way to end the call from them.

Why not certified for SFB\Teams?

Comment from Sennheiser:

“TeamConnect Wireless works with Skype for Business (as with other UC platforms without limitations. Microsoft changed the requirements for the S4B certification, due to the new category of “Skype Room System”. This follows the approach of a fixed, installed solution in dedicated rooms. Since this concept contradicts with the wireless, flexible concept for audio conferencing of TC-W, a certification is not possible”

In conclusion

It’s a beautifully designed product, what you would expect to see with Sennheiser. Also, it just works. Only real challenge is the price point, but again, if you took all the hours wasted on getting audio setup correctly you could easily justify spending USD 3,900.

Like this:

Let me start by saying that as of this moment the Sennheiser MB 660 UC is my new favorite headset. Let me explain..

At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that this is predominantly a music headphone. The absence of a boom microphone is what concerned me as soon as I started unpacking this beauty. I was expecting the MB 660 UC to pickup all the surrounding office sounds as it attempts to find my voice. This was not the case. Not even close!

It was actually quite the opposite. Not only was the MB 660 UC able to find my voice clearly, BUT it was able to filter out all other office sounds so effectively that callers were unable to hear me typing away on my keyboard (I tend to strike the keyboard in a less elegant fashion than most). I have a fairly loud neighbor to my desk (hello Travis) and in my daily Skype for Business calls he is often heard over my voice, despite my best efforts.

That’s no longer the case..

A good headset in my opinion needs to be comfortable, must have great music quality and needs superb conversation audio too. A decent battery life is appreciated and of course if it looks cool and doesn’t fall apart after rigorous use then I am happy.

The MB 660 UC stands above the rest with the use of an adaptive ANC (Active Noise Controller), *SpeakFocus and Advanced Own-Voice-Detector. Collectively these innovative technologies are the reasons why this headset is a superbly awesome device. The use of these 3 innovative technologies contribute to the removal of ambient noise while focusing attention to the speaker. Since ambient noise can vary, an adaptive ANC is particularly effective in adjusting to the ever changing ambient noise. Its a lot more technical than that, but you get the idea. Also all ANC claims are not equal, I tend to trust my ears and not the brochures.

The Plantronics Voyager UC has been my go to device in the office because of being wireless and fairly good at ANC. I have also used the Jabra EVOLVE 80 at my home office, primarily because of it being a lot better when it comes to ANC, filters out my squawking cockatiel to some extent but mostly creates a quite space for me to work in.

Don’t get me wrong, BOTH these headsets are really good. However, what has been missing (IMHO) is a device that is a hybrid of these two products. The Sennheiser MB 660 UC does that well.

The 3 “braille” like dots on the left hand side of the headset – get left and right correct in the dark. You don’t want to put this puppy on back to front, cause the boom will be projecting to the back of your head 😉

* SpeakFocus and Advanced Own-Voice-Detector are unique to Sennheiser

Areas for improvement:

Although the touchpad is really cool, I found that at times I either accidentally disconnected a call or placed the headset on mute.

The mute function doesn’t place the Skype for Business call on mute, just the headset, this can be confusing

Love the idea of no boom, however it comes with a slight degradation in transmitting audio

Would like to see more obvious indication of left and right, you can get these on back to front quite easily if you not paying attention

The MB 660 doesn’t pair correctly 100% of the time to my PC, every now and then I have to turn it off and on again before it connects properly

Handling the unit I niticed how it looks and feels like a quality product. No cutting corners to save a few dollars on inferior plastic etc. On closer investigation I was very pleasantly surprised by all the additional innovations that have been included.

My Favourite Features include:-

Left and Right sensed based on direction of the boom

Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)

Incredible battery life, I had almost 2 full days – and I listen to music 95% of the day

USB Pairing to my mobile phone, PC and tablet simultaneously without any issues.

Presence updated to In a Call when I am on a mobile call (Yaya!) – not new but very useful

Love the music control buttons (Track Backward\Track Forward\Play\Pause)

Rotating Wheel for volume control

Great sound quality

Mute On\Off when you take off\put on the headset (thank you active sensors), and a notification toast (mute on reminder) to tell you that its happened

Also, a screen toast that tells you that you are on mute if you forget and start talking while on mute

OpenMic – When not in a call, mute (Red so you cant miss it) button becomes OpenMic on\off. You can adjust the amount of ambient noise to allow with the volume wheel

Familiarity – since the buttons\controls are in exactly the same place as my Voyager Legend, operating this beauty is already second nature.

Bluetooth range beyond any of the devices I have tested before

The pouch has a separate compartment for charging cable and USB adapter, I have lost a few of these little adapters so am rather happy with this little inclusion.

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Comfort

Once I found the proper adjustments for my melon it was great. Managed to wear it for a full day without any discomfort. Its rather light and the ANC works fairly well for a headset that doesn’t totally encapsulate your ears.

Headsets often start to agitate me if they are too tight, partly because my radars get squashed. But wearing spectacles is also a discomfort when the headset is competing for the same real estate (over the ear). No such contention between my spectacles and my Voyager Focus UC.

Suggestions

I wish the Charge stand was also a Bluetooth receiver, I am often handicapped with only one USB socket

Using the Plantronics Hub Software, I can set the Media Player Action on incoming calls. I would love see Spotify on the list

Also the music control buttons don’t work with Spotify

Taking the headset off while music is playing pauses the music, cool BUT (see a theme developing here?) not working with Spotify

The USB receiver is very active, flashing bright blue all day long. Its a bit distracting and I would love to see an option to disable this altogether.

Overall I think this is a fantastic headset. Dare I say, its the best headset I have had the pleasure to use.